Boulder's Bridge House received a valuable and timely gift last week from a less than usual source.

The day shelter and social service agency, which is headquartered in the carriage house located at 1120 Pine St., on Nov. 25 received a donation of 15 big backpacks, each loaded with a sleeping bag, water bottle and winter hat.

Fellow Boulder-area nonprofit, Women's Wilderness Institute, donated the materials, which in the cold months are vital to many of Bridge House's homeless clients. The institute's mission -- to foster courage, confidence and leadership qualities in women and girls through wilderness adventures -- may not have much in common with Bridge House's mission. But as some who work with nonprofits can attest, the donation is one of many examples of local charitable organizations supporting each other.

"This time of year when even the days are cold, having access to gear is super important. And backpacks are always a hot commodity for folks," Bridge House Executive Director Isabel McDevitt said of the donation. "It's incredibly important."

McDevitt, who was formerly on the Women's Wilderness Institute board, said it was Shari Leach, the institute's executive director who contacted her and offered up the gear.

"She just called me up and said, 'We have this stuff and we know your clients could always use gear,' so she initiated it basically because she was thinking of us," McDevitt said. "I think it speaks to us -- all of us in the nonprofit world -- who are moving forward with our own mission and working hard to develop support. But it's always on our minds how can we help other organizations."

"It's a great thing when nonprofits who are usually asking for support are able to give support to other causes and other groups."

In that spirit, Bridge House itself has been providing some much-needed assistance to There With Care, a Boulder-based nonprofit dedicated to offering support to families with children facing critical illnesses.

Along with delivering groceries and providing for transportation, one of There With Care's major services is providing prepared meals to its client families, as well as hundreds of loaves of banana bread, according to Dana Bacardi, the organization's development director.

The industrial kitchen that the nonprofit was using to cook its food inside Boulder's Mountain View United Methodist Church was damaged in September's flood and was no longer available, Bacardi said.

Enter McDevitt, who through a friend that works for There With Care, offered up Bridge House's recently opened 2,700-square-foot kitchen space in east Boulder to fill the organization's needs. Volunteer members of There With Care's "team chop" and "team bake" have been stopping by the facility a couple of mornings a week ever since, producing meals and lovingly prepared banana bread for the organization's more than 100 active client families, Bacardi said.

"It's great working with Bridge House because they give us the space for free," Bacardi said. "We were kind of in a jam and they just stepped up. It just feels like a big hug."

McDevitt said she views Bridge House's support for There With Care as "paying it forward," adding, "Their mission is important and we are just happy to be able to give them the space that they need."

Bacardi notes that partnership between local nonprofits is common, such as when There With Care works with the St. Baldrick's Foundation each March to organize head-shaving fundraisers at area businesses, raising money for There With Care and St. Baldrick's mission of defeating childhood cancer.

"It's fun to collaborate with other nonprofits because they also help the community," Bacardi said. "We talk a lot about ideas to help each other. We attend each other's events. We support each other and it strengthens all of us."

Chris Barge, a spokesman for the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, said there are more than 400 active nonprofits in Boulder County.

"We have one of the densest per capita nonprofit populations in the country," he said.

With such a high concentration of organizations that often rely on donations to survive, one might guess that some competition would evolve. But Barge said in his experience, local nonprofits act as Bridge House, There With Care and Women's Wilderness Institute do and support one another as best they can.

"You could say that there is some competition in a community like Boulder County but you could also say there is more potential for partnership. And I think that's the nice thing about what you're seeing in this instance," Barge said.

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